Mobile phones today include sophisticated hardware and software designed to enhance the user experience. One of the more recent features to be incorporated into mobile phones is positioning technology. Mobile positioning technology such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), and non-GPS location techniques such as Cell Of Origin (COO) for location dependent services, Enhanced Observed Time Differential (E-OTD), and Time Of Arrival (TOA) allow a user to determine his current location. Mobile positioning information is very useful in a variety of applications, most notably for 9-1-1 services.
Mobile positioning technology can also be used to enhance a user's mobile phone experience by displaying current position information. This information can, in turn, be shared with others in, for instance, a wireless village group. A wireless village is a loose association of individuals that have agreed to band together and share or exchange status data pertaining to their mobile phones among the group. The wireless village is centralized on a carrier network so as to provide access to all group members that have registered.